Media and film studies

Latin American Cinema: Contemporary Trends and Movements

Module code: P5056
Level 5
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Film, Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework

This module introduces students to contemporary Latin American Cinema, focusing on the period of 2000 to the present. Students analyze contemporary means (transnational funding structures, transnationalized media conglomerates, artisanal), modes (realism) and movements (New Argentine Cinema etc.) and trace the emergence of these in relation to societal, industrial and economical shifts in specific domestic contexts post 2000 and to currents of global filmmaking. Specific topics of inquiry may include:

• gender and sexuality
• festival films
• transnational funding structures (co-productions)
• de-territorialized “Latin American” cinema
• historical memory/impunity – dealing with a repressive past.

Module learning outcomes

• Demonstrate an understanding of the contemporary period in Latin American cinema, especially in relation to key filmmaking nations and to its industrial, aesthetic and economic transformations
• study of Latin American Cinema, engaging for example with debates on neo-colonialism, neo-imperialism, transnationalism, and pan-Latin Americanism
• Apply relevant critical approaches and methodologies through analysis of selected film texts and contexts
• Demonstrate the ability to synthesise knowledge, research and analysis relevant to the topic and to produce independently argued ideas.